


h8 2 break it 2 u luke but u're a writer

by suzvoy



Series: The FaceSpace Saga [4]
Category: As the World Turns
Genre: Crack, Holden loves horses, Humor, Luke is a writer, M/M, Noah and Richard are a thing, Pictures, Sexual Humor, Social Media, so much crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 15:58:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16140599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzvoy/pseuds/suzvoy
Summary: Reid attends Thanksgiving and actually impresses everyone.





	h8 2 break it 2 u luke but u're a writer

**Author's Note:**

> Set quite a few months after the previous part. It's a soap - do not expect realism ;D
> 
> Many, many thanks to my wonderful girls, nel and d. *smoooooch*

*

**_Luke Snyder has posted something on your wall_ ** __

_Ha! I knew you were using Google_

*

Technically, Reid had met all of Luke's family. Well, all of Luke's family in Oakdale - which was pretty much the entire town of Oakdale due to the endless parade of marriages, divorces and affairs. With the exception of Reid, everyone in that town was related to everyone else, leading to the largest case of inbreeding Reid had ever seen. How all the kids didn't pop out of the womb with huge ears and Hank's appalling dress sense was clearly a divine act of God.

So he'd met all of Luke's family, but he'd yet to meet them in a collective group.

He'd been invited to their July 4th celebrations, but a major road accident had taken that holiday from him, like so many others. This was the first time he'd felt vaguely uncomfortable about it. Luke had been understanding. Annoyingly understanding and Reid hadn't taken to that well at all, deliberately needling at Luke that night until Luke had finally lashed out, ranting about how much it sucked that Reid's work always had to come first, but it was what it was and they had to deal with it.

There was no way in hell he was letting Luke get away with subjugating whatever the hell he was feeling. Not again.

Thanksgiving at the Snyder Farm was the next event Reid had been able to attend. In fact, Thanksgiving at the Snyder Farm was in about twenty minutes. Reid wasn't particularly thrilled at the prospect - and was having nothing to do with that ridiculous tradition with the squash. His hands weren't going anywhere _near_ a saw. But Luke came with a lot of family - an obscene over-abundance of family - something he'd been aware of coming into this. He couldn't just ignore them, much as he'd like to most of the time.

It wasn't that he disliked all of them. Lucinda was clearly a wise, intelligent woman. Ethan shared Luke's spirit. Holden and Emma just wanted Luke to be happy.

Lily plainly still thought that Reid was a bad influence. Faith and Natalie thought the sun shone out of Noah's perfect ass (truth be told, his ass was actually pretty nice). The extended Snyder family didn't really know him or care to know him. Reid figured it was because he was taking Luke out of the family comfort zone more than anything else. It'd been Luke and Noah for so long, the cute gay couple who overcame everything - paralysis, a psychopathic father, a green card marriage (Reid had taken great amounts of joy in pointing out to Luke what a dumb, dumb, dumb idea that'd been) and God knows what else - and along came Reid. Not cute. Older. Experienced. Telling Luke what he needed to hear instead of what he wanted to hear.

They could go screw themselves, as far as Reid was concerned. Luke was still writing; had started submitting short stories to publishing companies and journals a couple of months ago. Without much success, that much was true, but Luke was in the fortunate position of not needing to earn money through doing what he loved. Whenever he finished something he brought it straight to Reid - or sent a link to that livejournal site - searching for his honest, unvarnished opinion. Honest and unvarnished was Reid's default state and he had no hesitation in always telling Luke the truth - his work was good, very good, and improving all the time. It wasn't technically the best writing Reid had ever read and he still had a tendency to romanticise everything, but there was a raw vulnerability and passion that connected with the reader.

So - Luke was writing. Luke grinned more lately than Reid had ever seen him grin before.

They could definitely go screw themselves.

*

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Reid was the last person to arrive. Everyone else had arrived early to help out, something that wasn't even on Reid's list of 'things to do in domestic situations'.

Admittedly, it was a pretty short list.

Luke was there, though, which was good because he greeted Reid with a pleased kiss. However, it was bad because Luke immediately dragged Reid outside where most of the men were bringing in the Hubbard Squash. Although it was actually quite large, it certainly didn't need six fully grown men to carry it. But carry it they did, and when Holden cut into it everyone oohed and aahed and Reid decided he needed a beer.

And if he smiled when Luke insisted on getting their picture taken with it, at least it was on his own Blackberry where no one else would see it.

After that, Luke saved Reid the torture of making small talk by taking him around the packed kitchen and lounge, introducing him to the people he didn't know. There weren't that many people he actually hadn't met before and then Luke shot off to prevent a potential disaster occurring between Ethan and a tub of mustard and somehow Reid was left standing next to Noah and Richard.

"Hi," Richard greeted, waving dorkily. 'Dorky' summed up just about everything Richard did, but Reid couldn't judge too much - when he'd been only a few years younger than Richard, he'd been a huge nerd himself.

"Richard, Noah," he nodded, amused at the fact that Luke's ex was attending the festivities with his own boyfriend. A few months ago it would've been awkward as hell, but only in Oakdale could Luke and Noah be more functional after their break-up than they'd ever been in their actual relationship.

Noah grinned broadly and started regaling Reid with a story about a planned shoot being ruined by a streaker. Considering their past, Noah wasn't as irritating as he should've been and Reid liked the guy quite a lot, despite himself. Still, beyond watching one occasionally, movies really didn't interest him in the slightest and he was somewhat relieved when Emma announced it was time for everyone to take their seats.

Luke appeared by his side just as Noah laughed his head his off at something Richard said and Luke shook his own head, leaning in towards Reid. "Is it just me, or is Noah almost ridiculously happy lately? It's almost like he's on something."

"He's on something, all right," Reid agreed. "His name's Richard."

Natalie suddenly appeared from nowhere, grabbing Noah's arm. "Come on, Noah," she said, deliberately looking at Reid, "you're sitting with _me_."

Reid couldn't fathom even for a second why she thought this would bother him and yet somehow she still managed to use more subtlety than Faith, who'd been staring at him with utter hatred since the moment he'd walked into the room. Of course, it could've been aimed at her mother. Or her father. Or anyone. It was hard to tell - Faith hated a lot of people.

Luke, for all his faults, occasionally made smart decisions and displayed one of them by sitting himself between Reid and Lily, giving Reid a look that clearly said _be nice_.

Reid shrugged innocently. "What?" It wasn't like he ever started any of their arguments.

Emma asked everyone to hold hands and said a very moving and heartfelt grace. Reid thought he showed a considerable amount of maturity and restraint by not groping Luke underneath the table during proceedings.

The rest of the afternoon progressed pretty much as Reid expected. Lily and Holden did a bad job of pretending they didn't want to suck each other's faces off. Lucinda made it clear she thought Reid was the best thing since titanium spinal fusions. Faith complained about everything, Natalie fawned over Noah, Ethan found everyone fascinating and Richard laughed. A lot. The rest of the family were passing acquaintances or unknown quantities but for once there seemed to be no major family dramas going on - something Reid considered a minor miracle.

"Luke, darling," Lucinda asked as their plates were beginning look like plates again, rather than huge piles of food, "how's your writing going? Reid mentioned to me the other day that your work is becoming, and I quote, 'truly brilliant'."

Reid knew exactly what she was trying to do and glared at her too happy smile even as Luke turned his brilliant grin towards Reid.

"You really said that?" Luke asked coyly from beneath lowered lashes and seriously, how was Reid supposed to articulate any kind of sentence when Luke was looking at him like that?

Extremely aware that everyone around the table was now staring at him, Reid very carefully didn't shift in his chair. "You really think I'd be with someone who didn't excel at what they do?"

Smiling a smile that turned his face into nothing but teeth - which should've been disturbing, but somehow wasn't - Luke leaned closer and nudged Reid with his shoulder. "Got it baaaaad," he sing-songed, before returning his attention back to his plate, still grinning before it faltered, slightly. "From your mouth to a publisher's ears."

Everyone was still staring at him, apparently finding him fascinating - entertainment in Oakdale was sadly lacking - and when Reid reached for his water glass he noticed it was almost empty. Aware of movement out of the corner of his eye, Reid turned his head to see Lily standing just behind him.

"Let me top that up for you," she offered warmly, kindness crinkling the corners of her eyes as she reached for the glass.

Looking across at Lucinda, he rolled his eyes when she smirked and lifted her glass.

Next to Lucinda, Richard gave him a thumbs up.

*

As Reid got undressed for bed that night, he spied the open envelope on the bedside table. He didn't even need to pick it up to know what it was and didn't mention it at all until they were both laying in bed, lazily exchanging kisses. Reid still felt like he'd eaten an entire cow and sex was pretty much out of the question, despite the hopeful looks Luke kept sending him.

"Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia," Luke said in as a seductive a voice as possible, completely massacring the pronunciation.

Reid couldn't find it in him not to laugh. "Sorry, Writer Boy, but that works on you, not me, and your family's unbelievably addictive food has rendered me incapable of performing any kind of sexual act." Pausing, he faked a look of surprised realisation. "I suspect that was their plan all along. Maybe they really do share more than one brain cell between them."

Chuckling, Luke lightly tapped his hand against Reid's chest. The smile slipped off his face as he focused intently on the fingers of his own hand, still resting on Reid's body.

Lifting his arm, he covered Luke's hand with his own. "Another one?" Reid asked quietly.

Huffing out a breath, Luke lifted his gaze up and gave him a wry expression. "Do I ever get anything else?"

Reid couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Okay, Mr Melodrama, I know it wounds your ego but it's only been two months. Do you know how long most writers have to try before-?"

"I know," Luke interrupted, moving his hand away and dislodging Reid's in the process. "That's what you said last week and the week before that."

"The fact that I'm having to repeat myself may actually indicate that my sage advice was worth listening to _the first time_."

"I know, Reid. Everyone knows." He threw his hand up in the air. "You're never, ever wrong."

"Glad we're agreed," Reid nodded. "And may I remind you of my 'truly brilliant' comment?"

"Can you not..." Letting out an aggravated grunt, Luke pulled away until he was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. "I get why you are the way you are - and it works. You motivate people, you motivate me to be the best and I can be and it's part of the reason I love you so much, even if it is infuriating. But sometimes...I really just need to whine."

"Tell me something I don't know."

Luke ignored him, gesturing towards the ceiling. "I need to whine and complain and feel all pathetic. It's how I deal! Tomorrow I'll be fine, chasing down my next idea, but just for tonight...let me whine and complain and feel all pathetic, okay?"

In all honesty, Reid had known this was how the evening was going to end from the moment he saw the envelope. Equally honestly, it was also how Luke worked best. One day of feeling sorry for himself, to process whatever bad news he'd received, and the next day he bounced right back. It didn't look like a method that was going to be changing anytime soon and it was actually pretty healthy.

The sad reality was that Reid hated Luke's pity parties most of all because the sight of Luke's sad, ridiculously Bambie-like eyes did disgustingly sappy things to Reid's insides - which, in turn, made Reid do disgustingly sappy things himself. Even now his first instinct wasn't what it should've been, stuck somewhere between 'sensible, supportive partner' and 'insane declaration of eternal love' and when Luke turned those doe-like eyes on him once again, all resistance crumbled.

Even his stomach, with its iron-like constitution, would not be thanking him in the morning.

Reid sighed, resigned. "Vanilla or chocolate?"

*

**_Luke Snyder has posted something on your wall_ ** _  
You = Best Boyfriend Ever_

_  
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQCQnARnKbc> _

__

__

_~FINIS_


End file.
